Titles, Achievements, and Sight Seeing.

This past week has been a fun one.  I have been putzing around with Maura, putting my husband in fear of beating out Hacksoor to 80.  She is a lot of fun, stabbing people and picking their pockets.  I don't know why I never thought to stick with a rogue before this.  I love pick pocketing things.  I got a very pretty rock yesterday, but I forgot to turn off my grey seller.  Out of all the other things I have lifted silently out of pockets and purses, you'd think that I'd have a more valuable favorite.  Other fun things I have been finding are Exotic Cookbooks and Steamy Romance Novels. I must remember to stash away at least one copy of each book I find before the expansion. I can't wait to see what new books are coming!

I want this outfit!

Aside from pick pocketing as many Dark Iron dwarves and Twilight cultists as possible, I have been working on factions with Delgada. Noticing she had about 4,000 reputation until she was exalted with the Maghar, I took her out to kill ogres in Nagrand one session.In holy specialty, I'd run around casting Shadow Word: Pain, then when I had a sizable mob, I'd Holy Nova them down.  I don't think it took me all that long to finish. I didn't manage to capture the moment, but I managed to capture a happy extra achievement reward...

Who needs a sparkle pony, anyhow?

...an albino drake. If you too are interested in Leading the Cavalry, you'll need to gather 50 mounts.  Maghar, or Kurenai for Alliance, is a great reputation to grind for this, as they sell all the talbuk mounts (except the dark ones, which are sold by the vendor in Halaa), a nice chunk of the amount needed to complete the achievement.

The other reputation I found I was close to completing was Cenarion Expedition out in Zangarmarsh.  I needed a little more than 4,000 reputation points,so I decided I would try to solo the Steamvault.  Switching to shadow for a bit more protection, Delgada gulped down a Flask of the Frost Wyrm and stepped through the portal.  For all taht I have been fearful of taking Delgada into level 70 instance alone, she mowed that place down!  It took one full run and a couple short runs (Delgada was kind enough to help someone get the achievement The Lurker Above while she was farming) to hit exalted. This got her yet another achievement...

Seems almost wrong...

...Delgada, Guardian of Cenarius. This is probably one of those titles that just shouldn't be on an undead.  I only wanted the reputation so I could have the privelege to shell out 2000 gold to the Expedition quartermaster for the Cenarion War Hippogryph.  That, too, is an achievement, but I'd do it even if it wasn't.  Since I don't have one yet, I'm borrowing an image from WoWhead.   Why would anyone not want this mount?

 submitted by WoWhead user wolfmusic, this is the special mount action.

Delgada hasn't made any more progress with Loremaster of Kalimdor, which is sad, with all this news of Cataclysm, you'd think I would be in a hurry to finish that.  Instead, Maura is at level 76, doing her own exploring.  Here are some things I never noticed the first time or even the twentieth time I went through Shattered Halls.

Orc statues are everywhere in this instance!

Grand Warlock Nethecurse's room, too.

That's all I have been doing in WoW this week. In Wizard 101, Rowan managed to get a myth pixie and an ice serpent pet, and I brought out Esmee Wyrmblossom to fiddle with a fire wizard for a bit after I got the code for a Galvanic Hammer out of Beckett's Massive Online Gamer magazine.  It is so much easier to level with one of these items, as the 75 damage zero pip spell takes out low level mob sin one or two hits. This is especially handy with a fire wizard, where her first damage spell fizzles 25% of the time.  If you haven't picked up the magazine, it is well worth reading.  The interview with Steve and Leesha from Ravenwood Radio was good, and there are some interesting articles on some upcoming mmos and a sneak peak of the 3rd installment in the World of Warcraft graphic novel series. It would seem that they are in the market for handing out free codes, too, so if you are into AdventureQuest: Worlds, Dragons VS. Robots, or Wonderking, grab yourself a copy for some fun in game items!

Esmee Wyrmblosson, with her 1 day black stallion. Lucky!

Lastly, I bring up Perfect World.  I have been trying, Oh, have I been trying, but I cannot break out of level 21!  The price of death is a loss of a chunk of experience, and it seems right when I am making progress with Delgada the Cleric, I die and lose a good bit of it.  I'm thinking that I may start grinding on low level mobs to possibly get out of this hole I seem to be digging.  Other than that, Delgada has been picking up every low level material she can find and selling them.  We first tried the cat store, which is fine if you don't mind staying logged in to do it.  I find I am still a big fan of the auction house, and I am making money slowly.  Hopefully I will have enough to start doing some gold trading soon.  When that happens, I will be able to play the market, get some gold, and buy some clothing without having to use real money to do it! It is great that this system was instituted for players who have more time than cash.  Once I get started, I may do some research and post on how to work the gold market.

21 forever might be good in real life...

That's all I have for now.  I am looking around for another title to start toward the end of this month.  Sure, I don't have tonnes of time, but I need various forms of escape, and I aim to find a fun vacation home for my summer break!  If you know of any free to play games that I should poke my nose into, comment below!

Maura

Someone call an exterminator?

So cute when they are sleeping, aren't they?

Let's pretend we are amazed at her non-existent muscles.

Random picture completely unrelated to Maura, except their both being absolute wrecks.

Heavy Junkboxes? We Have Them!

Roughly a month ago my husband was given a down payment on another persons bid for insanity.  I don't know what the final payment will be, but I do know this has given me some blog fodder.  That, in itself, is payment enough, since I have been in a dry place lately game wise.  So, without further ado, I present to you my guide for grabbing as many heavy junk boxes as you can in a small amount of space and time.

Some of you might be asking yourselves, "Why do I need heavy junk boxes?"  The only reason I can think of that anyone would need these is to gain positive reputation with the Ravenholdt faction, by doing the repeatable quest Junkboxes Needed. Ideally, you should kill as many Syndicate as possible before starting this quest.  If you aren't a rogue already, you either will have to beg a friend or use an alt, because you can only pickpocket these boxes.

For starters, you will need a rogue.  These come in many different flavors.  My favorite is undead.  Your rogue will want to be at least level 60, and the higher above that the better, as it decreases the chance your rogue will be caught with his/her hand in a pocket. Make sure your rogue has the barest minimum of items in his/her bag.  I recommend a stack of bandages, some food, and your thieves tools.  If your rogue is an engineer, bring Jeeves along as well to sell of the garbage. Maura is not, so we will just be littering.  Drop your rogue off in Kargath, or Thorium Point if you have the flight point, and head on over to Blackrock Depths.

 Once inside, hang a left, and pick lock that gate. Don't bother with the mobs that are directly in front of you as you enter.  They only drop Sturdy Lockboxes, which look just like the heavy ones, but don't work for the quest turn in. Once you have passed the gate, stealth past the flame mobs and get out on the highway.

You could stay here, pickpocketing up and down the highway with great success, but I hate those dogs! They see through stealth, and though Maura is a healthy level 71, she still gets a tad too close once in while. After that happens, she usually ends up killing precious humanoid mobs, and we cannot have that. Since pocket loot will respawn after several minutes, you want to keep as many mobs alive on your route as possible.


Got auto loot on? You should have several boxes by now.  I didn't mean for you to think that I don't pick these guys pockets at all.  I do pick them on the way to my preferred farming area. Through the monstrous gate...

across the bridge...

through the covered walkway and past Lord Incendius.

Through the Hall of Crafting and past the contstructs.

Pick the craftsmen's pockets, you might get something! Even Fineous Darkvire sometimes has a little something in his pockets.

In Shadowforge City, on this ledge, go out the door and turn left, and go into the last door on the ledge. Pickpocket all these guys, too.

 In the Domicile, pick pocket as many as you dare. Up the ramp, through the first room and into the second, go past that fireguard on the right.

Another bridge...

Pickpocket this whole hall, including Pyromance Loregrain at the end.

You  have entered the farming zone! Halfway down the hall is our entrance to the Ring of Law, in the audience section.

Pick all their pockets, starting from the left or right, and ending when you have made a full circuit.  I usually then go to the opposite entrance...

and pick pocket over there...

...then come back and do the ring, then pickpocket the original hallway again.  You can keep this up indefinitely.

I hope this was helpful. Below I have made a nice red line on the map approximately where my path takes me.  Personally, I use landmarks much better, so that is why there are so many pictures! Any suggestions you all have would be welcome, because I am sure going INSANE picking all these pockets! :)

What I Am Up To : May Edition.

I have a bad case of the WoW blahs after some rather nasty guild drama.  Still, my guild managed to continue its push through ICC, downing Festergut and getting pretty close on Rotface.  This is due in part to our excellent group of raiding members, and in part to the buff that has been pushed to 20%.  Another reason is, since we lost two raiders in this messy dramatic break, we have been having some friends of the guild help out in a couple of places, some of which have already seen all of ICC, if not having already completed it on other characters.  They have been a big help explaining fights that some of us never took the time to study (hides behind her keyboard and whistles innocently). Oh, and did I mention Delgada got shelved? Turns out I know what I'm doing on Carlotta, and we don't need another healer.  Look up there, you'll see our raid group, about 50% Tauren, and made all that much sexier with Carlotta's ethnic color.

Since I have been fairly uninterested in doing anything in WoW, I have been playing a couple other games to pass the time.  The game that has taken the most of my time, up until our last ICC raid, was Perfect World, a free to play game with cash shop.  I am trying to play it without using the shop, but I think it's going to get difficult when I exhaust the quest means to expand my bank.  There are no quests to expand bag space, only a "quest" to turn in a bag expansion stone, which you have to purchase. Your bank,. however, can be added to by completing two gathering quests.  The first I was able to complete by level 20.  The turn in for this quest, however, is at the very top of the game map, far and away from a level 20 anything is questing. By this time, my cleric had maxed out her flying skill, so this was not too difficult to turn in.  But what a gigantic time dump!  I think all I did that day that I turned in that quest was turn it in and log off.  I am not looking forward to the second collection quest.  Let me not forget to mention that I joined a great faction there.  HVND has been around just as long as KNR, and been in many of the same games.  I remember frequenting their town on the Corbantis SWG server, paying my credits for their great doctor and dancer buffing house. The faction in Perfect World is just as friendly, and I'm looking forward to my next few stolen hours of playtime with them.

Another game that has taken some of my gaming time is Wizard 101.  Rowan Trollstalker is level 30, and I decided I would spend some time farming bosses for pets, since part of the new expansion for the game has been pushed live, with the introduction of pet leveling, breeding, and min games. Tonight, I spend a good part of my evening killing General Akilles in Cyclops Lane over and over again.  No pet yet ( I hear he drops a blue ghost), but I managed to snag a cyclops statue, a tonne of armor, a shelf, and a one day flying broom! After, Mister Winston and I fiddled around in the Pet Pavilion, playing in the maze game, the cannon game, and the dance game (we don't like the falling food game, no we don't!) Below is a picture of a practice derby Winston tried out yesterday.  As I play with crowns, I didn't run a rated match, but if this is any indication of how well he'll do, I may shell out a few crowns for some rated matches when he gets to ancient status. Right now, he and my dragon Madame Hannah are adults, and I could mate them to hatch another pet, but the price is outrageous!  Since we were lucky farming for pets (accidentally, mind you, what I really wanted was a flame cat statue!) the day before, I think we will stick with that for now.  If you want to try this out, level a character to 7 and talk to the Headmaster.  He'll send you on a delivery mission that will end in you getting a piggle of your very own to grow and love!

I would be a bad, bad game blogger if I didn't mention my other game addiction, We Rule. It's free to download and play, though if you wanted I suppose you could support them by buying mojo to speed up your farming and building, but you don't need to. Oh, and it would help if you had an iPod Touch, iPhone, or iPad to download it to, as I think that is the only platform they support.  Recent expansions have moved the level cap from 20 to 25, then to 30, and added such neat things to add to your kingdoms as stocks, jails, orange and ruby groves, and golden roads.You can farm, visit your friends villages and purchase their wares, and rearrange your town to your hearts content. Below, in no particular order, are hubby's homes and gardens, Michelle's(of VGO and WCO) kingdom, a picture of what the neighbors menu looks like, and a view of the loading screen and my kingdom.  These are all a little dated, because I had planned to post them earlier.

Other than those titles, the only thing that has been keeping me busy are the end of school rush for extra credit (or just regular credit), getting ready to close my work kitchen, and teenage drama.  I hope you are all in a better state than I am. 

That is all I have for now.  Stay tuned as summer hits, and my gaming adventures become less mundane.  I promise a summer vacation of free to play mmo's and free  iPod apps that will leave you feeling like you took a grand vacation!

But Public Domain Sounds Boring!

I haven't had anything nice to say about my time in World of Warcraft this past couple of weeks.  Pardon me for being absent.  I tried posting, really I did, but all the posts ended up sounding like a whine fest,and not the kind that goes well with cheese, so they will sit, partially written my in folders, unused.  Guild drama is entertaining sometimes, but mostly, it's just sad, and so, that is all I will be saying about that .

I have been enjoying some really well read books on iTunes lately.  Well, one, I'm slow, but I am looking forward to enjoying at least 3 others I have loaded on my iPod Touch.  The one I am listening to now is A Princess of Mars by Edgar Rice Burroughs.  It's about a middle aged guy who was part of the confederate army, who struck out to prospect gold with a partner after the war.  They found a nice chunk, and the partner was sent to get better equipment.  He didn't make it, and after saving his body from Indians,  our hero holes up in a cave and his adventures begin.

The book I downloaded was in podcast form, with about every other chapter voiced by a different reader. Does anyone know how to make your iPod play things in reverse order? This is the part that is slowing me the most, as I have to quickly bring up the interface and click on the next chapter before it reads one I have already listened to.  Imagine trying to do that in the middle of assembling 96 turkey subs.  My poor screen was pretty gross looking, even after taking off the gloves, a mix of perspiration and glove powder smeared across the screen.

Librivox is the service that made this available through iTunes.  They, with the help of volunteers, record works in the public domain and make them available to the public for their consumption.  I just love it because, well, I love to read, but I don't have the time to sit down with a book all the time.  Their books read in podcast version are read by a variety of readers.  This doesn't bother me, it just adds more color to the reading.  One chapter I get English with a middle eastern accent, the next I get a lovely southern drawl. Aside from that,the only other distraction during the recording is the required "This is a Librivox Recording" at the start of every chapter, introducing the book, chapter, author, and reader.  I believe this a small price to pay for their product.

In comparison, I recently joined Audible.com for their promise of keeping Stormrage for just trying them out.  Well, like most free trials, I always end up paying for another month, so I have credit there to spend.  Their book was good, but the reader annoyed me with their pronunciation of things like Sylvanas and Teldrassil.  You'd think they would ask how to pronounce something before committing it to a sound file and charging for it.

Aside from World of Warcraft books and free science fiction novels, I have been enjoying the series on the ship captain Honor Harrington by David Weber.  I spent my 1 credit from Audible this month on The Honor of the Queen.  I expect it to be a good listen, as I enjoy reading about Honor's adventures in her universe, and that should be enough.

Another series I would love to get into is the Dr. Who book series.  One I got my hands on was read by David Tennant, so it was almost like listening to the show while out of the room. I see that Audible has these available as well, though I am not sure who reads them.  So, I suppose I could recommend Audible if you have an extra 15 bucks a month.  It translates to one book a month, and if you don't use it, you can roll over up to 6 credits.  If you wanted to buy another in a month, you get up to 30% off. Not a bad deal, just not the best for me, when 15 means I feed my family for the day.

Check out Librivox or Audible.  Pick up some food for your imagination.